Django Unchained: A Western for 2012

There are not many western genre films made these days. This genre use to be one of the most popular topics for movies and TV shows in the 50's and 60's. The genre has lost its appeal probably because there are not many actors who can fill it.

Django fills the genre perfectly. Easily a four star movie despite some graphic shootout scenes, storyline, and acting. It is a spaghetti western in a similar style that Clint Eastwood made famous in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. But, Django is WAY better. It is realistic yet hilarious, at times, like, when the posse discusses about the KKK-like sheets over their heads because they do not fit good, the eye holes are too small.

By the time you are done watching the 2.5 hr movie, which flies by, you are immune to one of the most divisive and racial word in the English language- Nigger. There is no politically correct sensitivities here because everyone back in the 1800s spoke it freely. Men and women of both colors spoke it along with the F, S words. So, if this word boils your blood when its spoken, don't see it.

Jamie Foxx is Django, a slave who becomes free thanks to German Dr. King Shultz, played by Christoph Waltz. The doctor is sophisticated and is a bounty hunter. He is smooth and knows all the angles. Django begins as a low life slave, a know nothing, but is recruited by Shultz to help hunt down three criminals since only Django knows what they look like. But as Django learns the ropes and becomes as smooth as his teacher, the mission becomes finding Django's wife, Broomhilda, who speaks German (rather funny for being a slave). This leads to where the much of the movie anchors on, the Candie ranch and slave owner, Calvin Candie played by Leonardo DiCaprio who owns her. His slave boss is played by Samuel Jackson. DiCaprio plays the perfect southern gentleman with perfection. He is shocked by the intelligence and style of Django ("one in 10,000 niggers", he states), but his slave boss hates the sight of him creating much animosity between the two black men.

The plot to get the lovely Broomhilda is a scam that unravels. The gun battle is like the OK corral face-off. Yes, there is lots of blood but no worse than most any war movie. The last 15 minutes is predictable and like all westerns, Django and Broomhilda ride off into the night with Candie's mansion blown to bits, his partner dead, and all of Candie's men dead. Jamie Foxx plays a great Django with wit and simmering revenge.